Medical Supply Chains

Key medical glove factories cutting staff 50% amid virus

Malaysia’s medical glove factories, which make most of the world’s critical hand protection, are operating at half capacity just when they’re most needed.

Published March 24, 2020

Volunteers Keshia Link, left, and Dan Peterson unload boxes of donated gloves and alcohol wipes from a car at a drive-up donation site for medical supplies at the University of Washington to help fight the coronavirus outbreak Tuesday, March 24, 2020, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)

More Medical Supply Chains Stories

Why was the United States left scrambling for critical medical equipment as the coronavirus swept the country? An investigation into the fragmented global medical supply chain and its deadly consequences. Streaming now.

Medical supply chains are the fragile lifelines between raw materials and manufacturers overseas, and health care workers on COVID-19 front lines in the U.S. As link after link broke, the system fell apart. This catastrophic collapse was one of the country’s most consequential failures to control the virus.